Following extensive Lean process improvement work that successfully streamlined workflows and space requirements for the Children's Hospital of Saskatchewan, the provincial government has approved early design plans and boosted its investment by $15.5 million to $215.5 million.
"The project team did a phenomenal job of helping patients, families, staff and health professionals rethink how best to meet the health needs of our province's children and expecting mothers," Health Minister Dustin Duncan said at the unveiling of the facility's schematic design. "What we see today is a better, smarter, Lean design for an innovative hospital that puts patients first while enabling collaborative care in a teaching environment."
The Lean process helped teams find more efficient ways of providing services, while also improving the design and the hospital experience for patients and their families.
The floor plans were created using Lean methodology called 3P (production preparation process) where during two week-long sessions in November and December, teams of patients and families, staff and physicians examined data and considered how to improve processes to create a better experience for patients and families. Using those ideas, the teams created design concepts to support an improved way of delivering care which included two-dimensional floor plans, three-dimensional table top models and life-sized mock-ups of some rooms. In the fall, the CHS project team will take all the information it gathered over late spring and summer and create the next design report, including an updated list of equipment and furnishings. This, along with the review and approval process, is expected to take until the end of 2012. Construction is scheduled to start in early 2014 and be completed in late 2016.
For more information on the hospital including floor plans and design videos, visit www.saskatoonhealthregion.ca/chs.
